Lithium-ion batteries are recognized and valued for high efficiency, energy density, high cell voltage and long shelf life and have been in commercial use since the early 1990's. As always though, there is a desire to make better batteries for less cost. One area that has enjoyed a lot of technical development is in the area of the cathode material. Many chemistries for the cathode material have been suggested that provide different strengths among the many important performance characteristics for lithium-ion batteries. One interesting chemistry that has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,387,568, among other places, is lithium metal fluorophosphates. Lithium metal fluorophosphates are interesting in that they are expected to have a nominal electrode potential of about 4.2 volts and a theoretical capacity of about 150 mAh/g. These attributes are better than other lithium metal polyanionic compounds including LiFePO4.
However, it has been considered that the process for making lithium metal fluorophosphates is difficult. For this attractive material to be commercialized, developments for high quality and low cost manufacturing will be important. As noted above, any improvements for batteries, whether better performance, longer life or lower cost is a welcome and desired improvement.